TONY: Slow Burn (Raging Fire Book 1) by Kallypso Masters (the false prince TXT) 📕

if he had another crisis moment and get him the help he needed to process this nightmare.

He’d promised to help with Angelina’s birthday party too. She could always call him if he avoided her too long.

So late on the fifth of July, more than a week later, Carm decided she’d have to take the bull by the…um, horns… Yeah, her nighttime—and sometimes daytime—sexual fantasies about Tony hadn’t diminished over time. In fact, they’d become even more explicit. She wouldn’t get any sleep until she put this call behind her.

Would he be home? Alone? He and Marc had worked the holiday this year so, unless he switched places with someone, he wouldn’t be at the station.

With her free hand, she filled the washer with her delicates while the phone rang. And rang. It was a cell phone number, and first responders didn’t go anywhere without their phones.

“Hello?” Tony’s raspy-sounding voice sent a tingle down her spine straight to her girlie bits. That sensation was quickly replaced by a sense of relief at hearing his voice, which surprised her even more. She’d been more worried than she realized.

Thank God he was okay, although it sounded as though she might have woken him despite it being only ten o’clock. She had no clue what a normal sleep schedule was for him after working a twenty-four-hour shift, although Marc said they usually slept at night when they didn’t have calls.

She supposed she’d find out.

Flashes of orange and pink floated in the water. Tony tried his damnedest to reach them and pull them out in time, but just before he could, his alarm went off. Tony’s head pounded as he reached for his phone on the nightstand to turn it off. His head pounded from the bourbon he’d consumed earlier—or was that last night? What the hell day was it? Was he scheduled to work today?

No. I just finished my shift this morning.

Was it still Thursday or had he slept all night? Like that ever happened anymore. Then why did he set an alarm? When it sounded again, he realized it was an incoming phone call. Keeping his eyes closed to avoid more pain, he answered.

“Hi, Tony. It’s Carm.” Her chipper voice made him cringe.

He’d forgotten to call her.

Forgot, my ass.

After a pause, he said, “Hey. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, sure. I hope I’m not calling too late. I just wanted to…to talk with you…about Angelina’s party.”

He hadn’t even seen his sister since she came home from her honeymoon a couple of days ago.

“If this is a bad time…”

“No, no. I was just…in the middle of something.” An alcohol-induced stupor.

“Oh! I’m so sorry to interrupt!”

God, does she think I’m with a woman? As if he’d had any interest in sex this past week.

“Listen, Tony, just give me a call when it’s a good time, and we’ll talk then.”

Tony sat up on the couch, and an empty bottle of bourbon slid onto the carpet. At least he’d finished it before he passed out because he hadn’t replaced the cap.

“No, we can talk now. What do you need?”

After a moment, she said, “Have you had a chance to pull together a list of names for invitations? We’re just a little over a month away now…”

“List?” God, my head hurts. “Yeah, I’ll ask Mama to take care of that for you. She’ll know better than I will.” At the moment, he couldn’t string together a list of two things he needed to pick up at the grocery store.

“Oh, don’t give it another thought. I can call her tomorrow.”

As if he’d given it any thought. He’d dropped yet another ball. “No, I said I’d help, and I will.” He came across as sounding defensive now. “Sorry…I’ve just been a little busy…” trying to drink myself into oblivion when I’m not on duty.

“Tony, I was wor…wondering. You doing okay?”

The tone in her voice changed to the one he’d been hearing from people all over town and at the station ever since the drownings. It was as if everyone walked on eggshells around him, expecting him to crack at any moment. First his brothers. Then Mama. He didn’t need it from Marc’s family, too.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I just…after what happened at the…campground, I’ve been thinking about you.”

Was she referring to his flashback?

“I, um, read about what happened on the river a couple weeks ago.”

Crap. He almost preferred that she be thinking about him kissing her.

“I remember when Marc experienced similar episodes and just…I hope you’re taking Ryder’s advice. He’s been there too.”

What Marc and Ryder went through was a hundred times worse than Tony’s incident. While he’d promised Ryder he’d call one of the counselors—Ryder had even given him a copy of the counselor contact list knowing Tony hadn’t kept his own—he hadn’t made a single call yet.

Maybe after the holiday weekend, if he wasn’t sleeping better, because the lack of sleep was making him sloppy on the job. His lieutenant had pointed out that he was uncharacteristically showing up for work only a few minutes before shift change. But Tony hadn’t been late or missed a single day of work. It was just getting harder to get out of bed in the morning. Tony had also stopped going to the station on his days off, preferring to be in oblivion as much as possible.

“Tony? Still there?”

“Yeah. Look, Carm, what happened sucked, but it’s part of the job I signed up for.”

“True, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I’m so sorry you’re going through this.”

Pity.

The last thing he wanted or needed was for her to feel sorry for him.

He stared at the empty bottle at his foot and kicked it. Time to get rid of Carm. “Aside from the guest list, what else do you need for the party?” His abrupt change of subject left her silent for a moment.

“Um, well, what activities or games do you think she’d like?”

Games? He used to be the life of the party and would normally have come up with all kinds of ideas